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Synonyms

spoon-feed

American  
[spoon-feed, -feed] / ˈspunˈfid, -ˌfid /

verb (used with object)

spoon-fed, spoon-feeding
  1. to cause to be spoon-fed.


spoon-feed British  

verb

  1. to feed with a spoon

  2. to overindulge or spoil

  3. to provide (a person) with ready-made opinions, judgments, etc, depriving him of original thought or action

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of spoon-feed

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As usual, Wiseman doesn’t spoon-feed us details of who’s who and where’s where; he trusts us to get our bearings over an effortlessly engrossing four hours.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023

"I wanted someone to spoon-feed me information in a format that was easy."

From BBC • Nov. 17, 2021

Her Little Sisters of the Sick Poor are prime examples, as the name suggests: They spoon-feed the toothless, comfort the grieving, scrub floors, clean wounds, change diapers, empty bedpans.

From New York Times • Sep. 12, 2021

By plastering the walls with imagery as grandiose as Westminster Abbey and as mundane as fading green wallpaper, these projections spoon-feed scene setting that should be left to the set design and audiences’ imaginations.

From Washington Post • Feb. 13, 2020

Better let them go to hell in their own way than attempt to spoon-feed them.

From Ireland as It Is And as It Would be Under Home Rule by Buckley, Robert John